Backup offensive tackle to miss upcoming season

Texas Tech offensive tackle Matt Wilson will miss the upcoming season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said during the team’s media day on Saturday.

Wilson, a redshirt freshman who ended spring practice as the second-team right tackle behind Terry McDaniel, will undergo surgery “any day,” Tuberville said, which will end his season.

“He had a partial tear in his ACL through spring practice,” Tuberville said. “The doctors said if we operate on him now, during spring practice, he’s still going to miss (the 2012 season), so let’s see if it can hold up and we can get him through a season.

“It just wasn’t going to work. He got knocked down one time and it got real sore on him. They said, ‘No, let’s just go ahead and fix it and get him ready for spring ball (in 2013).”

Tech offensive coordinator Neal Brown said Le’Raven Clark, currently the starting right guard, would be the next to fill in at right tackle if needed. In fact, Clark lined up with the first team at right tackle during Saturday’s scrimmage while filling in for McDaniel, who missed the session due to a concussion.

Brown said the next option at tackle would be Rashad Fortenberry, a transfer from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

The coaching staff was hopeful that Wilson would be a player who could battle for a starting job next spring, Brown said. Instead, Wilson may still be focusing on rehab when that period arrives.

But Brown has impressed upon the redshirt freshman that he can still make the most of the next year.

"The good thing, and the way I'm communicating this with him," Brown said, "is he's going to be able to put on the weight he needs to put on. He's about 280 pounds right now. He's going to have to do a heavy upper body workout for a while, and I think he'll be about 295 when we hit spring."